Not Applicable
Not Applicable
Not Applicable
This invention relates to tools used to crimp together overlapping flanges of the galvanized steel decking often found in steel buildings.
Steel decking is commonly used to form floors and roofs of buildings. The decking generally consists of sheets of steel formed with elongate grooves separated by elongate bridges. Adjacent sheets have parallel side edges, with one side edge turned upwardly within a common side edge groove and with the other side edge turned upwardly and then turned back so that the edge is downturned to fit over the upwardly turned side edge of an adjacent sheet and to form a locking seam centrally positioned within the common groove formed between adjacent sheets of steel.
For most installations, hand held crimping pliers are manually operated to crimp the turned back edge of a steel decking sheet to an upwardly extending side of an adjacent steel decking sheet. Crimping is done at spaced intervals along the length of the locking seam, with the number of crimps, the lengths of the crimps and the pressure applied during crimping determining the quality of the completed floor or roof. It is not uncommon for a workman to initially make good crimps using the available crimping pliers, but, as the job proceeds and the workman tires or blisters form on his hands, he becomes unable to continue to apply sufficient pressure through the pliers necessary to make good quality, sufficiently long crimps or to continue to make closely spaced crimps. Failure to make good quality crimps can result in a building deck, floor or roof incapable of withstanding design stresses, sometimes with a resultant loss of the structure and possibly injury to people.
At the present time it is also common for a welder to apply a weld to the top of each of the crimps This further prevents separation of the crimps and greatly increase the strength of the structure. However, if the crimps are not made tight, the weld applied to the top of the crimp may not uniformly weld the sheets together and the welds may shear. Consequently, it is very important in the placing of the sheets of a steel decking that tight crimps be formed.
It is a principal object of the present invention to provide a hydraulically operated tool that is easily used to crimp together adjacent steel sheets of a deck. Another object is to provide a tool capable of making simultaneous crimps along a plurality of locking seams formed between adjacent steel decking sheets of a deck, floor or roof, or the like, thereby providing cost savings over the known process of crimping individual seams, by hand.
Other objects are to provide a tool that will make uniformly tight crimps of uniform length, thereby providing a satisfactory weld surface on the top of each crimp.
Principal features of the invention include a handle controlled support plate carried by wheels spaced apart to travel in central grooves formed in a steel decking sheet. An outrigger arm is carried by a leading edge of the support plate and must extend beyond both side edges of the support plate. A hydraulically operated pinch clamp is carried by each of the ends of the outrigger arm and each pinch clamp travels along and extends onto a locking seam that is formed by interlocking edges of adjacent decking sheets within a common groove formed by the adjacent decking sheets.
Control valves regulate liquid flow to the pinch clamps and may be operated to have only one pinch clamp operational or to have both pinch clamps operated simultaneously.
Additional objects and features of the invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art to which the invention pertains, from the following detailed description and drawings.